


Tad Too Cheerful For the Goddamn Apocalypse

by Ravenesta



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: (shhh i was watching warm bodies ok), Angst, F/F, Gen, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse, basically titans are zombies, i think i tried to make this funny but i failed, ill explain later, pfft just you wait for the 104th shennanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 03:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1764023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenesta/pseuds/Ravenesta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren wouldn’t call their particular group the largest, not by a long shot. There were eleven of them total, not including the newly arrived Marco and Mina. There were far larger groups parading around the 104th Camp. Nor was his group the most famous, skilled, powerful, etc. They were well known, sure, but when you were sharing a revamped Walmart with a hundred or so other people, you tended to become at least partially aware of who your new neighbors were. Despite having a few remarkably fantastic titan killers, they were a remarkably ordinary group of people trying to survive a remarkably terrifying zombie apocalypse.</p><p>At least, until he was bitten.</p><p>[DISCONTINUED]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meet the Peanut Gallery, Mr. Marco Bodt

“Welcome to the 104th Camp!” Jean announced with an exaggerated gesture that very likely did not fit the situation at hand. In fact, looking around, Eren was 99% sure that Jean’s enthusiasm was uncalled for. The two people that the grand introduction was directed towards, a couple of other kids named Marco Bodt and Mina Carolina, were looking around as if they were following a similar train of thought. _Fair enough_ , Eren thought, mentally shrugging. Merely a repurposed and reinforced Walmart, the 104th was a bit of a dump, but it kept them alive. “Them,” being basically whatever humans decided to straggle in the front door, although most split into independent groups of about ten to twenty people. Still, when it all came down to it, the 104th Camp were all a team, a family of sorts, and they call contributed as best as they could. Everyone pulled their weight, in this goddamn apocalypse.

“The 104th Camp... Why?” Marco pondered, his question not seeming to be directed at anyone in particular. He was marvelling at the quiet bustling all around them as they slowly walked, where some had paused in their business to stare, unbidden, at the two newcomers who Jaeger and Kirschstein had dragged in from the outside. A couple of former college students who Eren was vaguely acquainted with, a bespectacled blonde girl and a dark-skinned, long-haired boy whose left arm had been amputated a few months ago, looked up from their guns to wave at them. Eren returned the gesture half-heartedly. “Were there 103 other camps before this one...?” The freckled teen and his cousin, Mina, had been wandering the barren streets when Eren and Jean, doing a sweep of the area, had discovered them. “Look at them,” Jean had scoffed. “Sitting ducks! Do you think they’ve been bitten? Maybe they’re from another camp and they got lost... They don’t seem to be armed.” Upon further investigation, the answer was none of the above. The two of them had been moving from house to house in some abandoned neighborhood since this whole apocalypse shit started about a year ago, scavenging supplies and somehow surviving without running into any of the titans. Seriously. How had that happened. For a whole year. Anyways, the two had been forced outside of their safety zone by need of supplies, and somewhere along the line, Mina had sprained her ankle, leading to the two wandering around looking for other signs of life, and by extension, help.

“Nah, man,” Jean chuckled, slinging a good natured arm around Marco’s startled shoulders. “Nobody knows why it’s called that. Some say the guy who created it lived in an apartment with the number 104, some say he killed 104 titans before he finally keeled over, we don’t know. Most of the rumours are fucking stupid anyways.”

“Hey, Mina,” Eren tapped the petite girl on the shoulder. She jumped slightly, but directed a warm smile at him regardless. He pointed a finger in the direction of Glasses and One-Arm, who were sitting on a couple of rickety deck chairs shoved against a three-legged wooden table.. “That girl over there, her brother is a medic. If you ask them, they’ll tell you where he is, he can help you with your foot.” Mina nodded, murmuring a thanks before limping in the direction of the pair. Now unhindered by the injured girl, the three were able to progress through the various setups more quickly. The store had long since been emptied of all useful products, taken in a rush by hysterical early-apocalypse people, so over time, the various racks where products had once resided had become barriers, walls, and guides through the store. A few solo people, (these were few and far between; safety in numbers in this world,) had set up trade stores here and there, dotted amongst the independent camps. Food, ammo, knives, med kits, and more mundane things, pillows, blankets, even toys and knick knacks, could be found at these stalls. Soloists very rarely left the camp, so their main business was in gaining base supplies that could only be collected outside of the camp by those who scouted the post-apocalyptic cities, in exchange for more... valuable things.

Eren wouldn’t call their particular group the largest, not by a long shot. There were eleven of them total, not including the newly arrived Marco and Mina. There were far larger groups parading around the 104th Camp. Nor was his group the most famous, skilled, powerful, etc. They were well known, sure, but when you were sharing a revamped Walmart with a hundred or so other people, you tended to become at least partially aware of who your new neighbors were. Despite having a few remarkably fantastic titan killers, they were a remarkably ordinary group of people trying to survive a remarkably terrifying zombie apocalypse.

Mikasa and Armin were the first to spot their approach, Armin waving at Eren warmly from his chair, and Mikasa rising to greet him, enveloping him in a tight hug. The feeling was familiar, comforting, and as he returned the embrace with equal enthusiasm, he found himself with a strange conflict of contentment and lurching homesickness. _Mom’s gone, your house is gone, they took it away from you,_ he reminded himself sternly. The thought was enough to contort his face into its usual angry expression, although it only made him cling to his sister with more fervor. _Mikasa and Armin are all you’ve got now._

Mikasa was the first to pull away, a first when it came to their hugs, smiling at him with one thin eyebrow raised. “I see you two brought company.”

Jean, arm still around Marco’s shoulder, was talking loudly to the freckled boy. “This is home. We’re pretty cool people. By the way, if anyone asks who you’re with, tell them ‘back left,’ they’ll know what you mean. So, uh, you’ve already met me and Mr. Bloodthirst over there,” the asshole actually took a minute to sneer over at him, to which Eren responded with a middle finger. “That,” Jean continued, using his free hand to point to Mikasa, “is his adopted sister, Mikasa. Blondie over there is their mutual boyfriend, Armin.” (Ensue a series of spluttered protests from a red-faced Armin.)

‘Back left’ was their location in the store. If you had been lucky enough to claim an actual wall or better yet, a corner, for your camp, people knew who you were. Eren wasn’t sure why having a solid wall somehow made their group more well known than some of the others that did not, but whatever.

“Sitting around like the lazy fucks that they are on the bedrolls and chairs and shit are Sasha, Connie, Ymir, Christa, Bertolt, Reiner, and Annie.” Jean pointed to each of their friends in turn, who looked up with expressions varying from mild distaste to mock-hatred to genuine amusement.

“Everyone, that’s Jean’s new boyfriend, Marco,” Eren introduced dryly. Jean’s arm was off of Marco’s shoulder so quickly, Eren thought he might have dislocated it. Both his and Marco’s faces were burning bright red, Jean glaring daggers at Eren and Marco smiling nervously. _I_ _diots. They'll probably end up fucking._

Reiner stood from his bedroll, chuckling lightly. “Hilarious, you two. Now, before you picked up our new teammate, did you actually complete the sweep?” Jean and Eren nodded in unison, with Jean confirming, “Yeah, we’re all clear to scavenge the nearby buildings. Shouldn’t run into any trouble.” This was what they did nowadays. Found places where people used to live, work, have normal lives, picked it for whatever was convenient for their current lives, marked it on the map, and left. Of course, right before their big loots, they did wide sweeps of the areas, making sure they could focus all of their attention on scavenging, rather than the tricky business of titan killing.

“Great, let’s go. We’ve been geared up for hours.” This time it was Ymir who spoke, stepping slowly to her feet and helping her girlfriend, Christa, to do the same. Eren had been dubious about Christa going anywhere within the general vicinity of titan, but it turned the girl could do shit with a gun that none of them could, and Ymir was probably too viciously protective over her to allow her to be eaten anyways. Everyone was muttering in agreement, standing, stretching, and checking weapons. Ammo was loaded, holsters tightened.

Mikasa, the unofficial leader of the group, gave the signal. “Great, let’s go.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, in favour of working on my Jeanmarco skating au, I decided to write the zombie apocalypse au that's been nagging me for a while. chapters will switch between the POV of Eren and the gang and Levi's group, probably, and I'll explain more about this particular universe, and the titans, in later chapters. consider this a prologue of sorts???


	2. Everything's Shitty Over on Levi's End

Levi had felt wary concerning this particular mission from the very beginning. Did that stop them from going? Nope, of course not.

“Levi, other people won’t trust your instincts,” Erwin says. “Levi, I’m sure we’ll be fine, we’ve been sweeping this area for days,” Erwin says. “HOLY SHIT, LEVI, TITANS FROM ALL DIRECTIONS,” Erwin screams in panic. Really, the shithead is probably going to get him killed one day.

If Levi were to have his way, however, today would not be that day.

At first, he honest to god hadn’t been sure why he’d been so nervous. Everything was fucking perfect. An abandoned pharmacy had been plotted within driving distance. They’d sent teams of scouts ahead to sweep the area, and to clear all titans from the immediate vicinity. Hell, even if the place had been overrun, the mission was being led by the best titan killers in the whole fucking camp. Erwin, along with a couple of his subordinates, were joining Levi and his Special Ops squad to raid the place. Medicine was in short supply, this was pretty much the fucking jackpot.

That’s when Levi had realized it. _This was all too perfect. A textbook raid._

 

“Erwin, I think we should go...” He breathed, re-adjusting the rifle strapped to his back, shifting its weight almost neurotically. Erwin gave him a withering glance, raising one massive eyebrow. “Why, Levi? Literally nothing has happened. We’ve only explored the lower levels, and already we’ve got enough meds to last the camp a month. You know I trust you, but it seems as if you’re being paranoid.”

They had continued rummaging through cabinets in a tense silence for a couple of minutes, accompanied only by the muffled laughter from the next room as Oluo and Petra flirted and joked while they scavenged. Levi turned his back to Erwin, kneeling to yank open a metal drawer, glued closed by time and disuse. His search was aided only by the dim grey imitation of sunlight that filtered through the large windows of the building. He found that throughout the apocalypse, actual moments of sunlight became increasingly sparing. Everything was just... grey. It didn’t help that they were located dab smack in the middle of what used to be a massive, bustling city, which hadn’t been particularly colourful to begin with. Their camp was fairly large- Survey didn’t fuck around. It was really more of a military base than a camp, with Erwin, Levi, and Hanji as ringleaders of sorts. Everyone was armed, everyone pulled their weight. There was no place in the system for the weak, the elderly, young, or the physically incapable. He knew there were other camps that sheltered and took care of these people, but Survey simply couldn’t waste time and supplies on them. They were focused on a cure, on fighting back for humanity.

A couple of dull thuds snapped Levi out of his thoughts. Erwin seemed unperturbed by the noise, but Levi narrowed his eyes, calling out, “Perta, Oluo, what the fuck was that?”

He was answered by a shrill scream.

Levi was already throwing open the door with rifle in hand before Erwin had a chance to stand. He counted seven titans at first glance, ( _holy shit, where did seven come from so fucking quickly_ ,) and immediately pinpointed Oluo attempting to hold his own behind the counter, though three large titans were closing in quickly.

The titans were morbid creatures- previously human, turned into bloodthirsty, cannibalistic creatures. Their features were exaggerated, a horrific caricature of their previous human faces, with some of them hardly even appearing remotely humanoid, and most were ass-naked, (not that it mattered, they somehow had basically no genetalia.) During the beginning of this whole apocalypse thing, some poor nerds had shot the titans in the head, convinced that it was the only way to kill these “zombies.” Several large piles of corpses and a major collapse of the world’s government later, and someone finally figured out how to kill the motherfuckers. While the titans had incredible regenerative abilities, if a person could make significant damage to the back of a titan’s neck, the thing would finally keel over and evaporate in a cloud of smelly, meaty steam. The marksmen took up big-ass guns and aimed at their throats, a couple of good shots and they were down. Some of the more daring, or skilled, grabbed knives and swords, and pretty much got close enough to lob off their heads. The titans were created through any bite wound not to the back of the neck, which began the painful process of conversion, all bodily functions shutting down completely and their only thoughts becoming a rapid string of “Eat, eat, eat, eat.”

“Captain!” Oluo screeched, his wild gaze locking desperately onto Levi’s. “Petra, Petra’s-” The man cut himself off with a sharp yell, shooting almost wildly at an approaching titan. Both shots missed the vital neck area, although he did catch it in one of its abnormally large eyes, causing the thing to reel back slightly. Levi didn’t need him to finish the sentence. On the immaculate white tiles, the vibrant red streaks stuck out like a sore thumb. They all led to the crumpled form of Petra Ral, lying in a large pool of her own blood, amber eyes frozen in shock. Levi gratefully noted that the titan had taken a large chunk out of the back of her neck- he wasn’t sure he could’ve brought himself to keep her from shifting...

He snapped his gaze from Petra’s corpse, expertly taking down two titans that were getting a bit too close for comfort. _You can grieve later._

 

“We can’t save him, there’s too many, they’re too close,” Suddenly, Erwin was right beside him, his long, thin blade gripped between white fingers. “No,” Levi almost whispered the words, “we can’t.” The two raced across the room, only able to take out one or two titans before they reached the door. Erwin almost lost his arm to one titan with a horrific, lipless, grin, but he managed to slice the creature’s head off before it got too far. Both of them winced when the shrill, pained screams of Oluo’s death reached them, but they rushed through the double doors of the waiting room regardless. Levi didn’t check to see if Gunther and Erd were still fighting through the attack; he already knew the answer.

Out into the relatively fresh air of the streets they ran, Levi’s lithe frame allowing him to keep up with the force of nature that was Erwin Smith. He only needed a precursory glance to tell that the titans were everywhere, and immediately gave up any hope of reaching the Jeep that they had arrived in. He and Erwin come to a silent agreement, taking the street with the least titans and running like hell hounds were snapping at their ankles.

Levi somehow became simultaneously hyper aware and numb to everything around him. He heard the loud thudding of his combat boots on the cracked tarmac, felt it throughout his body, he could hear the low wind whistling by him, ruffling his neatly trimmed hair, and he could feel Erwin, a massive, lumbering presence beside him, but at the same time, was only distantly aware of these facts. He knew the numbness was keeping him alive, because if he didn’t feel numb, he would have to acknowledge the death of his squad, and if he did that, he would almost certainly drop to his knees right then and there, and wouldn’t bring himself to stand again.

So, with the image of Petra’s dead, glassy eyes burned into his eyelids, he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah i hope i provided an adequate descripition of how i see the titans as zombies sort of???  
> thanks for all the support this early on :) i like you people, you can have a cookie
> 
> initially squad levi wasnt gonna die, i swear, but then they just kind of... did???  
> hahah tune in for more character deaths next time on raven tries to write shitty stories
> 
> also watch me send a titan-sized middle finger to verb tenses. fuck you, verb tenses.


End file.
